Vumbura Plains Camp

Vumbura Plains Camp is a newly-built luxury safari camp situated in the private Vumbura concession bordering the Moremi Game Reserve to the extreme north of the Okavango Delta in Botswana.

The suites at Vumbura Plains Camp are raised off the ground and tucked beneath a canopy of shady, indigenous trees, with a beautiful vista across the game-rich floodplains. Vumbura Plains Camp consists of two separate and individually run camps, known as Vumbura Plains (North) and Vumbura Plains (South) Camp respectively, each featuring just seven suites. Both Vumbura Plains North and South Camps have their own dining, lounge and bar area that are connected to the suites via wooden platform walkways, raised off the ground.

Each suite at Vumbura Plains has a very large and spacious bedroom area, with a writing desk and dressing area, a lounge with a view of the plains, a "sala" (outdoor sun deck with loungers and private plunge pool) and en suite bath facilities with a shower, w/c and a romantic nature shower on the outdoor deck.

Vumbura Plains has both the wetland and savannah species of wildlife - Red Lechwe, Waterbuck, Hippo, Crocodile, as well as Impala, Sable, Kudu, Wildebeest and Tsessebe, roaming the open plains. Herds of Buffalo and Elephant occur here, along with the major predators - Lion, Leopard, Cheetah and Wild Dog. Birding features of all the Okavango Delta 'specials' along with Acacia and Dry Woodland species.

Vegetation ranges from vast open flood plains to dense mopane bushveld and has, historically, offered spectacular , year round, game viewing and birding.

Vumbura Plains Camp offers both land and water activities on a 130,000 acre concession that has a wonderful variety of habitats and great diversity of wildlife. The major game activity at Vumbura Plains is game viewing in open 4x4 Land Rovers that allow close proximity to animals in the savannah and forested areas.

The Vumbura area is possibly the only region in the Okavango where one can view both Red Lechwe (a large antelope that inhabits the fringes of the waterways) and Sable antelope (who enjoy the dry countryside) on single game drive. Add in Lion, Leopard, Cheetah, Giraffe, Elephant and Buffalo, along with all the plains animals, and one has an excellent all-round wildlife experience in a remote and private part of the Okavango Delta. Guided Game Walks, Mokoro and boating on the Delta give Vumbura Plain's guests the opportunity to enjoy Africa from a unique perspective.

As a result of their no-hunting policy, and because of the wide ranging habitats and permanent water in the floodplains, Vumbura Plains now has some of the best wildlife viewing in all of Botswana.

Notes from the Ranger's diary (2005):

"On June 4th, heading back to camp from the airstrip we sighted the sub-adult males from the Kubu Pride. The lions had spotted a herd of about 1000 buffalo streaming out of the Mopane on the way to a drink. They were 100m short of the lions, who intently gathered interest from the vantage point of a shady termite mound. An old limping bull caught their attention and the hunt was on. As the lions approached, the bull caught scent of the hungry nomads and ran off into the safety of the big herd. This huge herd of buffalo was segmented into groups of between 100 to 150 animals, as they emerged from the Mopane, thus giving the lions an opportunity to test each individual herd. The pride were unsuccessful in their first three attempts of breaking the herds, but lucky at the fourth when a calf stumbled, enabling one of the lions to grab it out of the fleeing herd. A powerful bite to the skull finished it off quickly, and both lions began to feed immediately. What amazed me immensely was the arrival of another herd who headed straight up to the feeding lions. Just stood and watched a few metres away as the lions fed on the calf. A cow frequently ran up to the lions, horns forward, but was soon stopped by an aggressive growl and a slashing tail..."